Chapter 2

Three days later, I brought a stack of transfer papers for several shops in the old quarter to Silvio's study.

Bianca had just thrown a fit because the baby wouldn't stop crying.

Silvio sent someone to calm her down and impatiently flipped through a few pages.

"Still sulking about the christening?"

"Didn't you say I could have whatever I wanted? They're just a few shops."

He thought I was finally willing to let money settle things. His face softened, and he signed every page without reading it.

He never noticed the divorce agreement tucked under the last transfer document.

When I took the papers back, my hands were perfectly steady.

I had the signature, but I couldn't leave yet.

I still had to freeze our joint accounts, separate the Thorne businesses, secure the court ruling, and plan my escape. All of that took time. If Silvio found out, anyone who sided with me would be treated as a traitor.

Until the ruling took effect, I still had to play the Donna of the Nelli family.

I handed the signed documents to my most trusted lieutenant and went through three sets of port accounts.

Two branch heads called me, one after the other.

"Donna, you saved our families back then. Say the word, and we'll follow you."

"Not yet."

I hung up. Bruno came racing toward me, his tail wagging wildly.

Outsiders thought my family had only one daughter.

But I had an older sister, Renata Thorne.

Bruno was a Cane Corso. Renata had given him to me shortly before she died.

I kissed the top of his head, feeling guilty that I hadn't been able to care for him during those three years.

"Get that animal out of here!"

Bianca stood in the doorway with the baby, screaming at us.

Her shout startled me.

I turned to her with a frown. Then Bruno growled.

He was staring at the baby's blanket, sniffing the air.

The next second, he lunged and knocked Bianca to the floor.

"Bruno!"

I ran forward to pull him back.

But Bruno wouldn't listen. He clamped his teeth around the blanket and ignored my commands.

The baby screamed.

Bianca kicked at the floor in panic.

"Donna, I was wrong! Please don't do this! Let my baby go!"

"Serafina, what do you think you're doing?"

Silvio kicked Bruno away and pulled Bianca into his arms.

I grabbed Bruno and held him back. Then I caught a strange, sweet smell of blood coming from the blanket.

Bruno never attacked anyone without a reason.

I was about to check the blanket when Bianca clutched the baby to her chest and hid against Silvio, sobbing.

"Donna, this is my child with the Don. You may hate me, but you can't set your dog on him!"

"I didn't."

Silvio saw that the baby was unhurt and ordered his guards to take Bruno away.

"I forgave you for demanding a divorce at the christening. But you shouldn't have gone after my son."

"Bruno only bit the blanket. He never touched the baby."

I stared at the blanket Bianca was hiding.

"Give me the blanket. I want to see it."

"Enough!"

Silvio's eyes turned cold.

"Are you saying Bianca put her son in danger just to frame you?"

Bianca buried her face in his chest, her shoulders shaking.

"Looks like you need to learn a lesson."

Silvio gripped my wrist and dragged me to the doghouse.

"Get inside."

I stared at him in disbelief.

"Or Bruno dies."

Silvio had built the doghouse himself during our first year of marriage.

Back then, he said that since he'd given me a home, he'd give my beloved dog one too.

After a long moment, I got on my hands and knees. Humiliation burned through me as I crawled inside.

Dust covered me, and my heart began pounding.

"Seal it."

Silvio issued the order in an icy voice.

"No!"

I threw myself at the opening.

The guards pulled my fingers away one by one. Then a board covered the opening, blocking out the last bit of light.

When I was a child, Renata and I once hid from assassins during a family war.

When they cornered us, she locked me inside an abandoned freezer.

"Remember what I told you. Don't make a sound!"

The killers demanded to know where I was.

Through the freezer door, I heard them break Renata's bones one by one.

I couldn't open the freezer door.

Now I couldn't move this board either.

I couldn't breathe.

Outside, Lucas Romano warned him that I had severe claustrophobia and needed to be let out at once.

Silvio's bored voice came through the boards.

"Don't be ridiculous, Uncle Lucas."

Silvio laughed coldly.

"Ten years of marriage, and I never knew she was claustrophobic. Prison must have taught her some dirty tricks."

His footsteps faded away.

I had no idea how long had passed when Bruno started barking wildly outside.

He had heard me pounding on the board. He broke free from the guard and rammed the doghouse again and again.

The board finally gave way.

Bruno bit into it and pulled until his paws were bloody.

By the time Lucas arrived and tore the doghouse apart, I was unconscious.

I woke up in the hospital with a terrible headache.

"Where's Bruno?"

Lucas was quiet for a moment.

"After he saved you, they locked him up again. I have my men watching him."

Relief washed over me.

But when I rushed back to the estate, I found only a leather collar in Bruno's bed.

Fresh blood stained it.

The collar had been torn in two.

I knew what had happened to Bruno.

Panicking, I grabbed a passing servant. My voice came out rough.

"Who was it? Who killed Bruno?"

The servant turned pale and refused to answer.

I raised my pistol. He immediately told me everything.

Bianca had given the order herself. She had told the guards, "The Don said everyone on this estate takes orders from me. That dog went mad again. Are you going to leave it alive to attack the heir?"

The guards had obeyed her.

My nails dug into my palms until they bled.

Bianca, you wanted a fight. Now you'd get one.